This year, Cappuvino has been nominated for Small Business (West Carleton) and Retail (West Carleton), and we would appreciate your vote.

This has been a great way for small businesses to get recognition, and allows for greater visibility for the winners.  The voting will close on February 3rd.

Cheers;

Natalie

1) Be Prepared: Make sure you have the proper wine glass, and your wine is stored at the right temperature

Light whites (Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc): 6C – 8C
Full White (Chardonnay) 8C – 10C
Light Red (Chianti, Zinfandel) 14C – 16C
Full Red (Cabernet, Shiraz) 16C – 18C 

2) Decant: Make sure the wine is fully decanted, either by opening the bottle ahead of time, using a decanter or a Vinturi aerator

3) Prior to serving the wine; show the label and help your guest by describing the type of wine you’re serving.  For example: “This Australian Shiraz has been aged for 6 months, and still has the white peppery taste characteristic from the Shiraz grape”

4) Pour the wine with the label upward, as wine is also stored with the label upward.  Any deposit will remain in the bottle, as it would have settled opposite to the label.

5) Drink Responsibly, as we want to keep you as a valued customer

Basically, there are two types on sediments, the first occurring during fermentation.  This initial sediment is formed at our premise, and consists of dead yeast cells, proteins, and other solid matter that settle to the bottom.  After 3 weeks, we actually stir these elements back into the wine so it can develop more character and complexity.  We then let the sediment settle to the bottom, and filter the wine with a medium filter pad.  This clarifies the wine without stripping out small particles that enhance flavours (there are 3 filter pad sizes).

The second happens in the bottle.  Certain red wines, especially our Italian Amarone will have sediments.  These sediment which develops in red wine bottles and is formed from tannins and other solid matter that gradually falls to the bottom (or side, if you are storing the wine properly). The presence of this material helps give the wine character and complexity, but there are strategies to pour wine without sediments.

A common strategy is to store the wine label upward, so the sediments can settle to the other side of the label.  When serving wine, slowly bring the bottle upward, uncork, then pour with label upward.  The sediments would stay in the bottle.

Cheers;

Natalie

There will be sampling two types of wine made with 4 week Premium Kits – Shiraz and Chardonnay

More information on this initiative can be found at http://www.internationalhomeshow.ca/

The Craft Winemaking Website  http://neverenoughwine.com/

The Show runs from Thurs. Oct 27 to Sun. Oct 30.

Cheers;

Natalie

His products has touched everybody, including the way we operate our wine store in the remote village of Carp.  I often use my iPhone to look up wine information along with multiple apps.  I take pictures using the iPhone on our site.  I would also show our online video to people on the iPhone and the iPod Touch.  I’ve also experienced the change in education when I took my Sommelier course not too long ago;  books are being replaced with ebooks and all grapes varieties available at your fingertips.

This entire Website was created and maintained with an iMac.

Natalie

Tim Vandergrift from Winexpert has recently written about this:

Basically, to be considered organic, these three steps need to be followed:

1) The agricultural methods must promote the biological health of the soil;

2) There must be no use of any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides; and

3) The food handling methods must preserve the integrity of the product from field to table.

You’ll be even further confused about wine kits when you realize that suppliers of grapes for the kits pretty much meet all three standards. No wine grower worth his or her salt will do anything to jeopardize the health of the soil, given that grapes take years to nurture. No short-term thinking there! And there’s mostly no need for synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. The most common thing sprayed on grapes is Bordeaux mixture, which is allowed on organics, and prevents mold.

Nor will a grower let the integrity of the product be sacrificed. If grapes aren’t handled properly, they burst and the juice oxidizes: not conducive at all to producing good wine. They’d be out of business very quickly if they skimped here. So what’s the problem? What can there possibly be about fence posts that gets in the way of allowing grapes and the wine kits they go into to be certified as organic?

The trellis posts used to hold up the wires that train the grape vines are almost always made of lumber that’s been pressure-treated with a petrochemical product. If there’s any obstacle to organic certification, that’s it right there. Can something else be used? Certainly – if the grower wants to spend significantly more money to use steel or concrete, and if the wine drinker is willing to pay much higher prices for a bottle or a kit. Some winemakers do this, and environmentally conscious wine drinkers accept the higher prices. But for most, this is a financial equation that simply doesn’t work.

The final sticking point is simply the amounts of paperwork required to obtain organic certification. Much of this is probably needed, to guarantee that organically certified products really meet the right standards, and aren’t just involved in “greenwashing.” But for wine growers and producers, it usually comes down to a choice between spending their lives filling out forms, or spending them growing grapes and making wine. And for most growers, it’s just not worth the bureaucracy required to get certified.

So are wine kits certified organic? No they’re not. But based on the standards that must be met to produce quality wine – from growing conditions through to handling and processing – good wine kits are as close to organic as you can get without the certificate. If you can forgive the fence posts, you can make and drink kit wine with a pretty clear environmental conscience.

I came across this information on the advantages of corks, and also included a cute promotional video.

Natalie

That natural cork in your wine bottle? It does more than just preserve the quality and character of your wine. It preserves old-growth cork oak forests and a centuries-long way of life through sustainable harvesting of the bark. And it helps preserve the planet by naturally absorbing carbon, the greenhouse gas responsible for climate change.

Artificial plastic stoppers or screw caps on the other hand consume fossil fuels, and use at least five times more energy per ton to produce, before millions of them end up in our landfills and oceans. It may seem like a little thing, but demanding natural cork is something we can all do.

We’re excited that we’ve already started to prepare for next year’s event.

Pair lighter chocolates with lighter wines; darker chocolates with full-bodied wines. Go from light to dark in your tasting session, starting with milk or lower percentage cacao chocolates and their corresponding wines.

1) Dark chocolate. with it’s bittersweet taste, pairs well wih most dry wines like Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon or port.

2) Milk chocolate? Go with fruitier wines like Merlot, Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc

Want to give it a try?  You can request chocolate & fruits for your Girls Night Out Event.

Cheers;

Natalie

Talking to the ladies reminds me that in a village like Carp, you must offer a product and service  that exceeds expectations, as your reputations travels very fast.  This is one reason why we offer our version called Girls Night Out, where four women enjoy an evening of bottling their wine with cheeses and other delicacies.  Truly a unique experience, even for a little village called Carp.  You can find out more HERE.

Of course, not all work is fun, but judging by the picture of Kathy and myself, you need to implement fun into your routine.

Natalie